Monday, November 18, 2013

Tornado throws 80 Teamsters out of work in Illinois

About 80 of our Teamster brothers and sisters who drive and monitor school buses in Illinois are out of work after a fierce tornado touched down in their yard and caused massive damage.

The Illinos Central bus yard in Coal City was devastated by the EF2 tornado that touched down today. The tornado had winds clocked between 111 mph and 135 mph.

Approximately 60 school buses were damaged. So was the Illinois Central office building. The storm blew trailers from a nearby trucking company into the bus yard. Fortunately, there have been no reported injuries.

Teamsters Local 179 President Tom Flynn has reached out to Illinois Central to offer support and has contacted First Student bus company to ask for assistance so that students will have continued transportation to and from school. The school district has announced that there will be no school on Monday for Coal City students.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Coal City residents and the surrounding communities," said Flynn.

The Coal City Methodist Church is looking for volunteers to serve food and drinks to the workers helping with the clean-up from the tornado. They are looking to fill four hour shifts: 9:30pm-1:30am; 1:30am-5:30am; and 5:30am-9:30am.

They will re-evaluate to see if they need help throughout the day on Monday.

If interested, please go to the Methodist Church located on McArdle Road. Pass this infomation on to anyone who would like to help out.